Hope you like hearing about the history of winning, because there is a LOT to talk about here. We’re in the midst of the 65th running of the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals, and it feels like a fine time to hash out who’s carved their name in the hallowed ground here at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip. Get your hearts ready! We’re doing this, we’re really doing it.
Step into the time machine
There have been 32 different winners in Pomona in Pro Stock and 24 drivers to swoop up a trophy at the Winternationals. Although this is the 65th running of the event, it’s the 56th time we’ve run Pro Stock at this race since it was introduced there in 1970. The very first winner was Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins (I met him once. He actually was a teeny bit Grumpy, though ever-so-cool), and he defeated Ronnie Sox in the final, 9.99 to 10.12. Sox came back the following year and got a Winternationals win of his own over Wally Booth, but then it was Grumpy again in 1972, followed by “Dyno Don” Nicholson, another win for da Grump in 1974, and then the one and only Bob Glidden stepped in to have his say for two years running before Larry Lombardo made his appearance there in the winner’s circle. Glidden won more than a few of them (seven Winternationals titles and 12 Pomona titles overall).
Lee Shepherd kicked off the 1980s with a Winternationals win, and Frank Iaconio went back-to-back in ’82 and ’83. In a battle of legendary engine builders, Iaconio got another in ’86 over Warren Johnson (yes, THAT Warren Johnson. Get the book here.) Johnson, “The Professor” of Pro Stock, has nine Pomona wins, and five of them came at the Winternationals. Jason Line is tied with WJ at five Winternationals wins, and if my notes are correct, Line never did close a deal at the NHRA Finals (how can this be right?!), though he reached the final at the season closer three times.
“Dandy” Dick Landy, whose first Pro Stock win would come in Englishtown in 1970, was a two-time winner at the Winternationals; he won Street Eliminator there in 1969 and Modified in 1970. Butch “the California Flash” Leal was also a two-time winner, first in Modified in 1976 and then in Pro Stock in 1988, when he defeated a young fella by the name of Mark Pawuk in the final. “Grumpy” Jenkins is actually a four-time winner in Pomona; he won the Winternationals in Stock Eliminator in 1965 over Dick Housey before his trio of Pro Stock wins between 1970 and 1976.
Jeg Coughlin’s eight wins there are impressive, but the only Pro Stock driver with more Pomona wins than Glidden is reigning and six-time world champion Greg Anderson. Anderson’s 15 wins include six at the Winternationals, and two of those came over Coughlin. The only other currently competing drivers to have raced Anderson at this event are Aaron Stanfield, who defeated Anderson in 2021, and his dad, Greg Stanfield, over whom Anderson got the nod in 2007. And speaking of Stanfields, Aaron has two wins in two finals here; he also got the nod over Matt Hartford in 2023. Greg Stanfield’s pair of Pomona wins both came at the Finals; he defeated Mike Coughlin for the Pro Stock Truck event title in 2000 and Kurt Johnson in Pro Stock in 2011.
For the record
Pro Stock is so much fun. From that first throaty fire of the engines to the miniscule margins of victory at the stripe, it is truly an absolute thrill, every time. At the heart of Pro Stock is the delicious thrum of naturally aspirated, high-performance engines equipped with Liberty transmissions that must be shifted quite precisely through five gears if one is to have a modicum of success.
Seeing records broken is also a lot of fun, and there is nothing more pleasurable than seeing one broken in Pomona. This racetrack is sacred ground, especially for Pro Stock, which got its start right here 55 years ago. The current track records are held by Erica Enders (6.480 elapsed time in 2014) and Drew Skillman (213.84 mph in 2015), but the conditions this weekend have the quick and fast wide-eyed and hopeful. In Friday evening qualifying this weekend, Anderson flew to the top spot on a 6.495, and he was asked during his pressroom interview if he thought the record could be touched.
“I really feel that we can run 6.48, whether we can get below that zero or into the 6.47s, I don’t know,” said Anderson, who reset the national record for e.t. in Gainesville to a stunning 6.443 in his HendrickCars.com Chevy. “It’s going to take 100% nailing it on the starting line, getting that killer 60-foot time. But these cars are capable of doing that. If we don’t have a lot of sun tomorrow, it could damn well happen. It’s going to be exciting, and it’s going to be fun. I don’t know who to bet on, and that’s the great thing about Pro Stock right now.”
Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge
Now in its third season, the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge is a bonus event sunk into Saturday qualifying at 13 national events in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series. The Challenge pits the previous race’s semifinalists against one another for a bonus purse and, even more importantly, bonus points that come into play when the Countdown to the Championship begins.
Last weekend in Phoenix, the first #2Fast2Tasty Challenge was run, and Jeg Coughlin Jr. and his SCAG Power Equipment entry claimed the victory. Coughlin dialed into the talent he’s shown behind the wheel since making his Pro Stock debut in 1998 and locked down holeshot wins over Greg Anderson and Dallas Glenn. After a surprising first-round exit in the main event, Coughlin won’t be eligible to race in this weekend’s Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge; that will come down to Anderson vs. Aaron Stanfield and Glenn vs. Matt Hartford.
Now trending
So far this season, the KB Titan Racing crew has shown up with the cars to beat. RAD Torque Systems-backed Glenn defeated teammate Anderson at the Gainesville season-opener, and Anderson defeated Glenn last weekend in Phoenix to take back the points lead. Although the Elite Motorsports group has been a bit off their normal pace (it would be fair to attribute this to the sidelining of multiple important members of their team with medical issues), there have been glimmers of the greatness that still resides below the surface. Veteran Greg Stanfield, in his return to Pro Stock for the first time since 2014 driving a Janac Brothers Racing Camaro, clocked top speed of the meet in Gainesville (212.96 mph). Aaron Stanfield, who reached the semifinals last weekend to represent his team in the JHG/Melling Performance machine, is No. 3 in the qualifying order for Pomona heading into the second day of qualifying. He and his dad are both in the stout top eight, with teammates Troy Coughlin Jr. and Jeg Coughlin not far behind.
But it isn’t all KB Titan and Elite: Young and driven Mason McGaha showed us again last weekend in Phoenix that he can pedal a Pro Stocker like nobody’s business, and with talent like that, he’s definitely to be considered as a front-runner for the next first win. Pro Stock newcomers Cody Coughlin (who appears to maybe just maybe have a little talent of his own on the tree), Matt Latino, and Stephen Bell all made good runs on Friday in Pomona, although Bell is just short of the field. He’ll have two more shots today to bump in, but Kenny Delco and Joey Grose are also both on the outside. It’ll be a battle to get around Chris McGaha, who is on the bump with a 6.586.
Come Sunday, the guy with the biggest target on his back might be Glenn. Although Anderson is the most recent winner in Pomona — he defeated Glenn in the final to win the championship at the season-closer — Glenn comes into this event as not just the defending titlist, but also as the racer who won it in each of the past two seasons. Could it be three in a row? Wait and see.
After two more rounds of qualifying on Saturday, eliminations for the 65th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals are scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m. PST on Sunday at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.
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